Former Trump surgeon general says "people are going to die" after RFK Jr. halts some mRNA vaccine research

Source: CBS News

Updated on: August 10, 2025 / 12:13 PM EDT


Former Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams — who served during the first Trump administration — argued Sunday that "people are going to die" if the U.S. backs away from mRNA vaccine development, after Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. halted around $500 million in research funding.

Kennedy announced last week that the administration was canceling 22 mRNA vaccine development projects, saying the vaccines "fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu." The projects were funded through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA. Kennedy said the funds would be shifted toward "safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate."

Adams, who appeared Sunday on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," said Kennedy's assertions about the efficacy of mRNA vaccines are "simply not true" — citing their effectiveness in the COVID-19 pandemic, during which hundreds of millions of people took Pfizer and Moderna's mRNA vaccines. "We know that by the most conservative estimates, upward of 2 million lives have been saved because of mRNA technology," Adams said. "It helped us develop COVID-19 vaccines in record time. And it's, quite frankly, President Trump's greatest achievement."

The mRNA technology was central to Operation Warp Speed, a public-private partnership aimed at quickly developing COVID-19 vaccines at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic near the end of Mr. Trump's first term. If the U.S. had relied on older vaccine technology, it could have taken an extra 18 to 24 months to develop COVID-19 shots, Adams said.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-trump-surgeon-general-rfk-mrna-vaccine-research/

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As he noted - the mRNA vaxes were part of 45's "Operation Warp Speed". There were basically a bunch of companies that were part of that, with GSK (& I think Merck), dropping out, Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J eventually producing a vaccine (with the former 2 the only mRNA vaxes and where J&J had to eventually withdraw their "single dose" one that was similar to the AstraZeneca one used in Europe). The last one in was Novavax that finally got approved last year using a 3rd method.